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This is a big win for the Trump administration. An appeals court just issued a 2-1 decision overturning lower court opinions which found Trump’s firings at the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board illegal. In essence, the appeals court said President Trump could go ahead and fire them, at least until the underlying case is decided.
A three-judge panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit divided 2-1 in agreeing to halt the lower court orders that voided Mr. Trump’s firings of Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board while legal proceedings move forward.
Wilcox and Harris had argued that their firings violated federal laws that limited their removals only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. The Trump administration, meanwhile, defended the terminations and said the restrictions on the president’s ability to remove the officials are unconstitutional.
« The people elected the president to enforce the nation’s laws, and a stay serves that purpose by allowing the people’s chosen officer to control the executive branch », Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in his first term, wrote in an opinion siding with the administration.
« The people elected the president, not Harris or Wilcox, to execute the nation’s laws », he said. « The forcible reinstatement of a presidentially removed principal officer disenfranchises voters by hampering the president’s ability to govern during the four short years the people have assigned him the solemn duty of leading the executive branch. »
The third judge in this case, the one who voted against overturning the lower court rulings, is an Obama appointee.
The backstory here is that there has been an ongoing argument about whether or not the president has the power to fire high level appointees within the executive branch or whether congress has the constitutional ability to set up « independent » executive agencies such as the NLRB whose leaders cannot be fired by the president.
In this case, Gwynne Wilcox was nominated to the NLRB by the Biden administration in 2023 and became the chair of the board last year.
